Digital Initiatives Update - 11/20/09

Latest News

Over the past weekend (Nov 14-15) the LIS website was upgraded, and now uses Drupal 6 to serve content. As was noted last week, most of the site’s appearance and functionality remain the same, however a few changes should be highlighted:

• Blog notifications – the system used to send out email updates from the LIS Blog has been modestly changed. Existing subscriptions have been migrated to the new system with the most comparable settings applied for each user. If you’d like to subscribe to the LIS Blog (or modify your subscription), instructions can be found on this page: Subscriptions to LIS Site Content.
• The page for the LIS Event Calendar view has changed, from “/events” to http://lis.luther.edu/calendar.

Project Highlight – Library Course/Subject Guide System

Andi Beckendorf and I are currently investigating options for a system to provide resource guides targeted at academic subjects and course sections. Currently the library uses a handful of solutions to meet this need. Subject and course guides are published through a custom-built Drupal solution. Paideia course guides are provided in three manners: Drupal, the open source LibData product, and pdf or Word files.

Along with continued investigation of Drupal and LibData, we are also testing 3 other products:

• LibGuides – produced by SpringShare, this provides a hosted, 3rd-party solution. LibGuides is used by many libraries, and received much attention at the 2009 ACRL Conference.
• SubjectsPlus – an open source system designed at Ithaca College Library, and based on a product from East Carolina University, which relies on LAMP architecture.
• Library a la Carte – an open source system designed by Oregon State University, and built on a Ruby on Rails platform.

All three systems share similar characteristics, including modular design that allows easy guide creation, ability to display a wide variety of content, and the addition of “Web 2.0” functionality such as supporting streamed video, RSS feeds, or Delicious tags.

We have begun experimentation with LibGuides and SubjectsPlus, and look to have a test version of Library a la Carte functioning in the near-future.

If any of our readers have experience with these systems, or general commentary/advice/suggestions on using library guide systems – please share! You may contact us via the “Contact Us” link to the right, or by commenting on this post!